Garage door sizes

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Bleach

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Hi All,
I've never had a garage and need advise on door size. We are designing a house with a 2 car + shop space. The designer has put 9' doors on the 2 parking spaces and a 10' x 12' tall door on my shop space.
We have always owned a Forester and a Yukon. 9' sounds fine for the Subaru, but I'm not sure of the Yukon. 10' on the shop seems big, but I've had someone say backing a trailer through a 10' door is a PITA.
In a perfect world we would just upsize everything, but the budget is of some consideration.

Any input is appreciated.

Brian
 

wjburken

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Hi All,
I've never had a garage and need advise on door size. We are designing a house with a 2 car + shop space. The designer has put 9' doors on the 2 parking spaces and a 10' x 12' tall door on my shop space.
We have always owned a Forester and a Yukon. 9' sounds fine for the Subaru, but I'm not sure of the Yukon. 10' on the shop seems big, but I've had someone say backing a trailer through a 10' door is a PITA.
In a perfect world we would just upsize everything, but the budget is of some consideration.

Any input is appreciated.

Brian
A 9' wide garage door is more than enough for your Yukon to fit in. Make sure you have the depth in the garage. 24' would be the absolute minimum I would want in a garage. My current garage is 22' deep by 24' wide and it is tight with a workbench across the back wall.
 

OR VietVet

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Agree. 9' wide is fine for the Yukon. Backing a trailer can be an art. 10" may be wide enough for me but you could give someone 12' wide and they would still *****. I would want at least the 10' wide for that door and that would be fine but I guess it also depends on the trailer width.
 
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Bleach

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More info:

Trailer would be a small river boat, atv trailer, or camp trailer for spring and fall maintenance, the shop will mostly be for a FFR build.
Backing is not a problem for me either, but just looking for opinions.
 

iamdub

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Picture this, for reference:

My attached garage is 23' wide, 27' deep with 20'x8' sectional across the front. This is where we park our daily drivers- Ford Transit 250 work van for me, Mitsubishi Outlander for her.

IMO, the width is the bare minimum for a fullsize vehicle and midsize vehicle to cohabitate, if you're careful of your position when parking. I back my work van in and stay far to the right so the passenger mirror barely clears the jamb. There's shelving on that side so the passenger side of my van and those shelves are inaccessible when I'm parked. The wife can't back that far down the driveway so she drives straight in. This puts our driver's doors adjacent to each other. With her car positioned, we can both open our driver's side doors all the way. She can also open her passenger side doors since there's more room on that side as it's the wall adjoining the house.

In the back, I have a 30' wide, 40' deep shop with a 10'x10' front door in the center. I don't see ever needing more than 10' width or height.


Comparing your garage dimensions, you're good to go with the width. Having two separate doors ensures your vehicles will be spaced apart comfortably. The 4' more width you have compared to mine is a lot of breathing room. If you can picture my arrangement, then add an additional 4' of width... Yeah.

I'd recommend that space between the two doors to be at least 2'. From left to right: 3.5' "corner" from one wall, one 9' door, 2' wall in between, second 9' door, then other 3.5' "corner" to other wall = 27' width, evenly spaced. You can take some from one 3.5' wall and add it to the other side if you need the space there for shelving or work bench, but you have that covered with the 28' depth. Or if you want more than the 2' space in the middle, etc. Regardless, you have the garage space with your planned dimensions.

For the shop, it sounds like you've already given that some thought based on your use so that's all on you.
 

PatDTN

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I don't see anybody mentioning height. If I carry anything at all on top of my Tahoe it won't get under the door. I'veforgotten and tried to get through with the back gate up. Doesn't make it. Ow.
 

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